113 



OUR 



NATIONAL SCHOOLS OF SCIENCE. 




PROFESSOR IN THE SHEFFIELD SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF YALE COLLEGE. 



[REPRINTED FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW 
FOR OCTOBER, 1867.] 




'f J ? 



BOSTON: 
TICKNQR AND FIELDS. 

f-K 1867. 

) 



<i0 



y 



Entered according'to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 

TICKNOR AND FIELDS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



University Press : Welch, Bigelow, & Co., 
Cambridge. 



OUR NATIONAL SCHOOLS OF SCIENCE. 



1. Act of Congress, approved July 2, 1862, entitled " An 
Act donating Public Lands to the several States and Ter- 
ritories which may provide Colleges for the Benefit of 
Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts " ; with the explana- 
tory Speeches o/Hon. Justin S. Morrill, M. C. — Congres- 
sional Globe. 

2. Circular addressed by Henry Barnard, U. S. Commis- 
sioner of Education, to the Authorities in Charge of the Col- 
leges and Schools established or aided by the Congressional 
Appropriation " for the Benefit of Agriculture and the Me- 
chanic Arts" Washington. September, 1867. 

3. Report of the Committee on Organization in the Cornell 
University. By Hon. A. D. White, Chancellor. Albany. 
1867. 8vo. pp. 48. 

4. Report relative to establishing a State University in Cali- 
fornia. By Prof. J. D. Whitney and others. Sacramento. 
1864. 8vo. pp. 30. 

5. Scientific Education in its Relations to Industry. An 
Address at the 21st Anniversary of the Sheffield Scientific 
School of Yale College. By Prof. C. S. Lyman. New 
Haven. 1867. 8vo. pp. 30. 

6. A few Things to be thought of before proceeding to plan 
Buildings for the National Agricultural Colleges. [By Fred. 
Law Olmsted.] New York. 1866. 8vo. pp. 24. 

7. An Address on the Limits of Education, before the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology, November 16, 1865. By 
Jacob Bigelow, M. D. Boston. 1865. 8vo. pp. 28. 

The influence of our recent war in developing the " na- 
tional " sentiment of the people can hardly be over-estimated. 
It was the conclusion of a long series of conflicts between the 



idea of a loose confederacy, exposed to the secession of a dis- 
affected section, and the idea of States forever united to pro- 
mote the common welfare of all the inhabitants. As the nation 
was vindicated in the final appeal to the decision of arms, so in 
a multitude of important although minor issues there has been 
a like assertion of the power of the people, acting through the 
general government, to secure for themselves benefits which 
cannot proceed from the action of independent States. 

For example, national banks have almost superseded State 
incorporations, and their bills are current throughout the land. 
National securities have become the favorite investments, not 
of rich capitalists only, as heretofore, but of workingmen, farm- 
ers, mechanics, teachers, ministers, and other men of little 
income and less savings. A national railroad, stretching over 
half the continent, is in progress, to bind the East and West 
together. The nation has pronounced itself in favor of an 
international system of weights and measures. A National 
Academy of Sciences has been instituted. Appropriations 
have been made by Congress, and delegates have been sent 
abroad, to represent us at the exhibition of national industry in 
Paris. A national Commissioner of Agriculture has been ap- 
pointed. 

Nor has public instruction been neglected. A national De- 
partment of Education has been established, and a national 
Commissioner appointed to promote as far as possible the pro- 
gress of sound and liberal views of intellectual culture. More 
than this, a vast domain, surpassing the area of many of the 
kingdoms and duchies of Europe, has been appropriated by 
Congress for the promotion, throughout the land, of indus- 
trial or scientific schools, colleges, and universities. 

We shall not now discuss the tendency of such legislation, 
nor question how far it promotes the dignity, the prosperity, 
and the happiness of the United States, or how far it lessens 
the popular regard for States rights and the dread of a central- 
ized government. We merely call attention to this noteworthy 
aspect of the times in its relations to popular education, and to 
the obvious fact that the withdrawal of the extreme sectional 
men from the halls of Congress has made it possible to mature 
and carry out some plans for the national welfare which in ear- 



lier days would have been certainly voted down, and which in 
time to come, whatever be the conditions of reconstruction in 
the South, can never be undone. 

Under these circumstances we think that the epithet employed 
for the first time in the heading of this article is a fit designa- 
tion of a class of institutions rapidly organizing in all the loyal 
States. They are in fact, if not in name, the " National Schools 
of Science, " distinguished from all other schools and colleges 
by the reception of an endowment from the nation, obliged to 
conform to certain requirements of the national legislature, and 
bound to print and publish annually a report of their progress. 
It is true that the general government has no other control 
over them than to insist upon a fulfilment of the requirements 
of the statute by which they were created. But the nation 
gave birth to them ; the nation provided their dowry ; the na- 
tion is to reap the benefits which they are designed to render. 

Yery few persons understand the momentous significance 
of the Act of Congress "for the Benefit of Agriculture and the 
Mechanic Arts," which was passed by Congress on the 17th 
of June, 1862, and became a law, by the approval of Presi- 
dent Lincoln, on the 2d of July immediately following. Our 
New England readers will associate the earlier of these dates 
with the anniversary of the battle of Bunker Hill, the earliest 
occasion on which the force of the national arms and the self- 
determining power of the American people were exhibited 
to the world. Hereafter the same anniversary will recall to 
the minds of scholars the earliest act of Congress for the 
promotion of national popular education. Other grants there 
have been, we are well aware, for purposes of instruction, but 
this is the first which regards the wants of all the States. 

It is very remarkable that so important a measure should 
have been carried through the House of Representatives by its 
friends under the operation of that summary procedure in par- 
liamentary tactics known as " the previous question." The 
only broad and statesmanlike speeches, on the general principles 
of the bill and the probable influence of its enactment, were 
made by the author of the measure. Many other persons 
spoke upon the subject, especially in the Senate, but nearly 
all that was said had reference to minor points involved in the 



general plan, and had little regard to its characteristic features. 
So, too, in the several States of the North there has heen but 
little general conference or inquiry or discussion respecting the 
educational necessities of the country. Each State is solving 
the problem of what to do with the public grant in its own 
way, with reference to its own wants, and according to its own 
understanding of the Congressional intent. Some persons may 
not object to this, but will point to it as one of the many illus- 
trations of the self-confidence and promptness of action which 
distinguish our countrymen. We are not sure that this mode 
of procedure is the best. 

We cannot but regret that an educational problem so impor- 
tant as that which is involved in the establishment of these 
National Schools of Science is to be settled, at any rate for a 
time, with so little comparison of views among the educators of 
the country, and so little discussion of the principles of men- 
tal training. A grant of land, imperial in extent, is devoted 
to the creation and encouragement of five-and-twenty colleges, 
one in each of the loyal States, which are to be followed, it is 
probable, by the creation of five-and-twenty more in the recon- 
structed States of the South and the newly admitted States of 
the West. These colleges are to differ from most of those al- 
ready established, in the classes of persons for whose special 
benefit they are founded, and in the modes of instruction they 
will employ. Yet there is no public conference of scholars or 
statesmen respecting the legitimate scope of the institutions ; 
no inquiry in regard to the wants of this country or the expe- 
rience of others ; no sharp and clear announcement even, in 
the act of Congress which confers the grant, of the character to 
be aimed at in the new establishments ; no thorough discussion 
in the periodicals of the day respecting the changes which are 
possible and desirable in the national education. All at once 
the country is involved in perplexing inquiries. The problem 
is complex as well as difficult, requiring time not less than 
wisdom to solve it. It involves so many unknown quantities, 
that well-defined conclusions cannot be reached at once, if in- 
deed they are ever to be attained. The broadest culture, the 
deepest insight into the laws of intellectual progress, a thorough 
appreciation both of science and of letters as means of disci- 



pline, and a sagacious power of adapting means to ends, are es- 
sential to the wise determination of the questions involved in 
the establishment of these institutions. 

But, as usual, this country cannot wait for the slow gathering 
of wisdom. " Something must be done." The land has been 
granted, the schools must begin. Stated in its barest form, the 
problem to be solved is this : How can the methods and results 
of modern science be made most conducive to the education of 
American young men? Stated in its fullest expression, there 
is no point in the theory of intellectual discipline and the 
methods of human culture which the problem does not involve. 

" This is a republic where the will of the people is the law 
of the land," says our highest military leader to the highest 
public functionary of the land. It is true in education as in 
politics and war. The people hold the power, the people will 
decide upon the methods. They will blunder, they will exper- 
iment, they will try exploded notions, but they will never lose 
sight of the end in view. They will secure " the liberal and 
practical education of the industrial classes." When that is 
accomplished, and not till then, universal education will be the 
characteristic of the continent, as in earlier days it has already 
been of some portions of New England. 

We regard it as a promise of future good, that the new "De- 
partment of Education " in the general government at Wash- 
ington has been first intrusted to one of the most experienced 
and enlightened advocates of public instruction in this country, 
and that one of his earliest official proceedings is to seek out 
and bring together the results during the last five years of the 
action in the different States respecting the Congressional ap- 
propriation for the purposes of national education. The circu- 
lar mentioned at the beginning of this article presents a series 
of questions addressed to the authorities of the new Schools of 
Science, and when their returns are received we shall have a 
curious and instructive chapter of educational experience. The 
circular also contains copies of the original enactment of Con- 
gress, and of many of the separate State enactments upon this 
subject, with full accounts of two institutions already in vigor- 
ous progress. In no other place can so much be seen of the 
method in which the Congressional grant has been applied. 



8 

The titles of other pamphlets which we have prefixed to our 
remarks are selected from a large number which we might 
have given, as affording a good idea of the character of discus- 
sions which are now in progress. We shall not remark on them 
separately, for our intention is to present the general rather 
than the local aspects of the subject we have taken up. Prior 
to the bestowal of the Congressional grant, schools of science, 
under various designations, had been established in various 
places, and many of the older classical colleges had arranged 
for partial or optional courses of study, which were supposed to 
be called for by students who would not devote themselves to 
Latin and Greek. Some of the largest of the large endowments 
which have been bestowed on educational institutions in this 
country have been directed to institutions of science rather than 
of literature. The names of Stephen Yan Rensselaer, James 
Smithson, Abbott Lawrence, Peter Cooper, Joseph E. Sheffield, 
Abiel Chandler, Blandina Dudley, and George Peabody will 
remind the reader of a series of princely gifts, the object of 
which has been to promote the knowledge of natural science' 
among our countrymen. Most of these donors had acquired 
their own fortunes, and had clearly seen the value of training 
in mathematical, physical, and natural science as a preparation 
for life, as well as the importance of scientific researches in 
promoting the development of our natural resources. Other 
kindred benefactions might be named, but those now cited 
are enough to show that, independent of what the government 
might do, schools of science were not likely to be neglected by 
the people of this country. 

The pioneer among these scientific schools was that at Troy, 
founded by the late Stephen Van Rensselaer, and long under 
the direction of Amos Eaton, the well-known naturalist. It 
was reorganized in 1850 as a special school of architecture and 
engineering. For a long time it stood alone. The gift of 
Abbott Lawrence to Harvard College, in 1847, for the founda- 
tion of a scientific school, attracted very general attention ; 
and within a few years, at Harvard, at Yale, at Dartmouth, at 
Union, at Columbia, and at some other younger colleges, sci- 
entific schools were established, nominally on the footing of 
the professional schools of law, medicine, and theology, but 



practically (in some instances at least) affording to the scholars 
a course of study parallel, but by no means equal in discipline, 
to the usual college course. 

In New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Illinois, and other 
Western and Central States, vigorous efforts, with more or less 
success, had been put forth to organize agricultural schools, 
which should train practical farmers for their work, and should 
help forward the science of agriculture by investigations and 
experiments. An " Institute of Technology," on a very liberal 
plan, had been projected in Boston, having reference, though 
by no means exclusively, to the training of mechanical engi- * 
neers and others engaged in manufacturing occupations. ^r 

Under all these different forms there may have been, when 
the Congressional Endowment Bill was passed, twenty institu- V, 
tions which could be grouped under the general title of scientific 
schools. They were variously termed, in popular or official 
phraseology, scientific schools, polytechnic schools, technologi- 
cal schools, agricultural schools ; and they differed as much in 
worth and in influence as they did in name. In one respect 
they were alike : they were all imperfectly endowed. Most 
of them were also on an experimental basis, — no person being 
able to say exactly what they might, could, or should be. Still 
they were very significant indications of the spirit of the age. 
They showed a desire for an advanced education on some other 
basis than the literature of Greece and Rome. They showed 
the willingness of rich men to give to scientific colleges. They 
showed the popular craving for what was vaguely termed, for 
want of a better word, a practical education. They showed 
that, in some form or other, provision would be made for educa- 
tion in those branches of useful knowledge which tend to ex- 
hibit the Creator's works in their true aspects, and likewise in 
those which are immediately connected with the material ad- 
vancement and civilization of mankind. 

Such, in brief, was the provision made for scientific education 
in this country at the time when Congress gave a new and 
definite impulse to the movement. The private influences 
which were at work urging on our representatives at Washing- 
ton to encourage " agricultural schools " by a gift of public 
lands, we cannot here attempt to rehearse. There were busy 
2 



10 

and devoted men in New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois, 
who spared no effort within their power to secure a national 
appropriation. 

The history of Congressional action on this subject begins 
with the assembling of the Thirty-fifth Congress, in December, 
1857, at the outset of Mr. Buchanan's administration, in the 
days of Kansas outrages, — the beginning of the end of the do- 
minion of slavery. On the 14th of December, the chairman of 
the Standing Committee on Agriculture, Mr. Justin S. Morrill, 
introduced a bill appropriating to the several States a portion 
of the public lands, for the purpose of encouraging institutions 
for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts. Opposi- 
tion manifested itself at once, and the bill, instead of being re- 
ferred, as the author desired, to the Committee on Agriculture, 
fell into the hands of its enemies in the Committee on Public 
Lands. Four months later, on the 15th of April, 1858, the 
chairman of the latter committee, Mr. W. R. W. Cobb of Ala- 
bama, reported back the bill, recommending that it should K not 
pass. Mr. Walbridge of Michigan, from the same committee, 
presented a minority report favoring the measure. The in- 
troduction of the subject at this time led to very little debate 
or inquiry in respect to the various sections of the bill. Its 
author appeared determined that it should pass or fail to pass, 
as a w hole, and that it should not be altered and ruined by 
attempts to satisfy all possible objections to its features. He 
made the only elaborate speech in its favor, and Mr. Cobb 
made the only effective speech in opposition. The " previous 
question " was ordered by the House, and the bill was called 
by the very small majority of one hundred and five to one hun- 
dred. A change of three votes would have killed it. This 
occurred on the 22d of April, 1858. 

The Senate also referred the measure, when it came from 
the House, to the Committee on Public Lands, and they re- 
ported it back, without advising either its rejection or its pas- 
sage, and Congress adjourned without action having been taken 
on the part of the Senate. Two months of the following win- 
ter passed by before this bill was reached. Then, by the ener- 
getic efforts of Senators Wade, Harlan, and Stuart, and in spite 
of the opposition of Senators Jefferson Davis, J. M. Mason, and 



11 

Pugh, the bill, slightly amended, was passed, by a vote of 
twenty-five to twenty-two, on the 7th of February, 1859. A 
change of two votes in the Senate would have defeated it. The 
House concurred in the amendments which had been made, 
and the bill went to the President. It soon came back with 
his veto. The objections which he raised, partly of a constitu- 
tional and partly of a theoretical character, were forcibly put ; 
and they may be consulted by those interested in the history 
of the bill as a clear and strong statement of the views of the 
opposition. 

When the bill returned to the House, it could not be expect- 
ed that a two-thirds vote could be secured over the President's 
veto. On putting the question, the advocates of the measure 
stood firm, one hundred and five ayes ; four of the opponents 
were gone, and the noes were ninety-six. So the bill was not 
passed. 

Nothing illustrates the changing aspect of affairs through- 
out the land better than the legislation of the Thirty-fifth and 
Thirty-sixth Congresses respectively. In the new Congress of 
President Lincoln's administration, the very same bill which 
had failed before was introduced to the Senate by Senator 
Wade, on the 5th of May, 1862. It went to the Committee on 
Public Lands, and, eleven days later, was reported back favor- 
ably by Senator Harlan. For a month its fate was pending in 
the Senate. Its opponents asked for delay, and raised objec- 
tions, not only to its general principles, but to specific pro- 
visions. On the 10th of June a vote was reached, and the 
Senate, by a vote of thirty-two to seven, passed the bill. The 
minority was composed of Senators Doolittle, Grimes, Sauls- 
bury, Wright, Howe, Lane, and Wilkinson, — the three last 
named having taken the"lnost active share in the debate. 

The bill went to the House, and, without any other debate 
than an able speech from its author, Mr. Morrill, was adopted 
by the decisive vote of ninety to twenty-five. This occurred, 
as we have said, on June 17, 1862. In a few days it received 
the signature of Abraham Lincoln, and became a law of the 
land. 

Thus, after nearly five years of Congressional delay and op- 
position, the author of the bill and its earnest advocate had 



12 

the satisfaction of seeing accomplished a most important ser- 
vice to the people of this land. We give a summary of the 
act in its author's own words. 



/ upon 



" The bill proposes to establish at least one college in every State 
upon a sure and perpetual foundation, accessible to all, but especially 
to the sons of toil, where all the needful science for the practical avo- 
cations of life shall be taught, where neither the higher graces of clas- 
sical studies, nor that military drill our country now so greatly appre- 
ciates, will be entirely ignored, and where agriculture, the foundation 
of all present and future prosperity, may look for troops of earnest 
friends, studying its familiar and recondite economies, and at last ele- 
vating it to that higher level where it may fearlessly invoke comparison 
with the most advanced standards of the world. The bill fixes the 
leading objects, but properly, as I think, leaves to the States consider- 

le latitude in carrying out the practical details." 

An analysis of the act, sufficiently full for the general reader, 
may be given in the following terms : — 

I. Every State may receive a quantity of public land equal to 
thirty thousand acres for every one of its Senators and Repre- 
sentatives in Congress, under the census of 1860. 

II. The mode in which this land may be selected and located 
is restricted by various provisions, the most important being 
that no State may locate its scrip within the limits of another 
State, — although its assignees may do so. 

III. All expenses of location, management, taxation, etc. 
must be paid from the State treasuries, in order that the entire 
proceeds of the sale of lands may remain undiminished. 

IV. The proceeds are to be invested in safe stocks, yielding 
at least five per cent per annum, and the interest " shall be in- 
violably appropriated, by each State which may take and claim 
the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support, and mainte- 
nance of at least one college where the leading object shall be, 
without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and in- 
cluding military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as^ 
are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, in such man- 
ner as the Legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe,] 
in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the in- 
dustrial classes in the several pursuits and professions in life/}/ 

V. This grant is made on the following conditions : — 1. Eacl 



13 

State shall guarantee the entire capital of the fund it receives ,\ 
except that one tenth of the capital may be devoted to the pur- 
chase of a site or of a farm. 2. No part of the fund or the in- 
terest thereof may be applied to building or repairs. 3. Any 
State receiving the grant must provide an institution within 
five years. 4. An annual report shall be made and distrib- 
uted. 5. If lands improved by railroads are selected, the num- 
ber of acres will be diminished. 6. No State while in rebellion 
may have the benefit of this act. 7. No State may receive the 
grant unless its Legislature formally accepts it within two years 
of its approval by the President. -^ 

VI. Certain provisions are made respecting the location of 
the land-scrip, and the reports to Congress of sales, appropria- 
tions, etc. 

Some modifications of the law, not affecting its general 
characteristics, have been subsequently made by acts of Con- 
gress, approved April 14, 1864, and July 23, 1866. By the 
latter, the time in which a State may signify its acceptance 
of the grant is extended to three years from the date of the 
amendment, that is, to July 23, 1869, and Territories (which 
were not included in the original measure, though mentioned 
in its title) are allowed three years after their admission as 
States within which they may avail themselves of this national 
bounty. The time within which every State must establish at 
least one college is also somewhat extended. The tenor of 
these amendments is obviously such that the rebellious States 
of the South and the coming States of the West, so soon as 
they are received into good and regular standing as States, 
may share in the benefits now enjoyed by the old and loyal 
members of the Union. Thus the grant becomes completely 
national, and cannot by any possibility be construed into a 
favor bestowed in time of war for the special benefit of the 
North. 

The law, then, contemplates the early establishment and 
endowment of not less than thirty-seven national schools of 
science. Including the Territories as now organized, this num- 
ber rises to forty-four, that being, according to our count, the 
present number of States and Territories, loyal and disloyal, 
which constitute the Union, — not including Sitka. Any State 



14 

may elect, however, to establish more than one of the proposed 
colleges, and the number of Territories is sure to be increased. 
It is safe, therefore, to say that Congress has provided for the 
institution of nearly fifty colleges on a national basis. Let us 
now look more closely into the terms of this enactment. 

Among the ideas which are often advocated in this country, 
but which are wisely kept out of the Morrill bill, are many 
crude and rash notions in respect to the objects and methods 
of instruction. Many persons, aiming to benefit the industrial 
classes, would have insisted on some particular form of institu- 
tion to be adopted in every State, and would have hampered 
the bill with objectionable features. In proof of this, we 
need only turn to a pamphlet published by the Agricultura 
Department at Washington, with strong official commendation 
in which the writer gives such directions as these : — " Lei 
the model farm comprise, if practicable, exactly one hundred 
acres, and be of a regular shape." Let this be divided into 
portions comprising " exactly ten acres." One of these paral 
lelograms, " the model garden," may be laid off "on the plar 
of Mercator's Projection, so that the prime meridian may pass 
through Behring's Straits " ; the buildings will then " occupy 
the central vacancy in the Pacific Ocean, while each seed sowi 
and shrub or bulb planted may be made to grow on such repre 
sentative spot in the garden as it occupied in its native soil.' 
Even if there were no danger that such extravagances as thes( 
would find place in legislation, it would not have been surprising 
if a spite had been shown against Latin and Greek, or a predilec 
tion for manual labor, or a determination that a farm should 
all cases be secured. Some advisers would have thought 
essential that the general government, in providing the endow 
ment, should perpetually exercise the right of inspection or di 
rection. Military men might have been tempted to insist on 
military organization for the discipline of the students. But a] 
such objectionable restrictions are happily omitted from the ac 
of Congress. It contains everything which is essential, an< 
nothing which is unessential, to the end in view. The peopl 
\ of every State are left free to determine how the scientific edi 
\ cation of the industrial classes may be most efficiently pre 
moted within their several limits. 



15 

The most noteworthy phrase in the bill is the clause which 
defines the character of the projected institutions, and which 
we have quoted verbatim in the fourth paragraph of the above 
analysis. It states in the clearest terms that the object of the 
national liberality is to provide instruction in " such branches 
of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts, 
without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and in- 
cluding military tactics." It does not seem possible to mis- 
apprehend this statement. Yet every week we are surprised 
to find that this broad and comprehensive basis of the grant 
is not understood, even among intelligent men, who should 
be correctly informed. The act is almost always called 
" The Agricultural College Bill," which is as truly a mis- 
nomer as if it were called " The Public Lands Bill." In the 
Indexes of the Congressional Globe and of the United States 
Statutes at Large, in the laws of most of the separate States, 
in the official messages of Governors, Comptrollers, and the 
like, "Agricultural College " is the term employed to indicate the 
essential feature of the law. This is an error, — an injurious 
and dangerous error, likely to lead to many popular complaints 
respecting the institutions established by Congress. Even so in- 
telligent a writer as the accomplished Farmer of " Edge wood," 
in one of his latest volumes, gives an undeserved fling at the 
teachers in our agricultural colleges, based on the erroneous im- 
pression that only agriculture should be taught in these national 
schools of science. The mechanic arts, however, are placed\ 
on the same footing as agriculture, and the liberal education J 
of the industrial classes is as much an object of the grant as 
their practical training. In short, any branch of human learn- 
ing may lawfully receive attention in these schools, provided 
only that it does not preclude attention to the study of natural 
science in its applications to human industry. Even a univer- 
sity with all its faculties may be maintained with the proceeds 
of the grant, if they are adequate to such an outlay, provided 
always that the promotion of agriculture and the mechanic 
arts is kept prominently in view. 

The popular misapprehension requires correction. If the 
title "National Schools of Science" does not find favor, let 
the term " Colleges of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts," 



16 

" Industrial Universities," or the more familiar and indefi- 
nite phrase " Scientific," " Polytechnic," or " Technological " 
School, be substituted ; but let not the inaccurate and incom- 
plete designation " Agricultural Colleges " continue to find fa- 
vor. It has already led, in some places, to unpleasant discus- 
sions with farmers and their friends, who have claimed all the 
advantages of the grant, without reference to the many other 
" industrial classes " in the community. The truth is, that in 
our country all belong to the industrial classes. All are intent 
on work. No birthright, no entailed estate, no aristocratic 
title, no official position, exempts the American from laboring 
with brain or hand, or with brain and hand, for the benefit of 
his fellow-men and the promotion of the general civilization. 
It is the comprehensiveness of the Morrill bill which constitutes 
its highest excellence. At the same time, while we insist upon 
the catholicity of this measure, we cannot and would not over- 
look another fact which is just as clear. Scientific schools, not 
classical colleges, are established by the act. The terms of 
the law, the explanations of its author, the intent of its sup- 
porters, unite in showing this beyond a doubt. Mathematical, 
physical, and natural science, the investigation of the laws of 
nature, are to be the predominant study, rather than language, 
literature, and history. The latter may be, the former must 
be, included. No slight is cast upon the classics, the venerated 
means of human culture, the acknowledged instruments of 
high intellectual discipline. They may hold their place ; but 
other studies must predominate in the new institutions. In 
other words, the general government lends its co-operation 
to the development of the national wealth, and bestows its 
bounty on institutions in which men of all political, ecclesias- 
tical, and religious opinions may, if they will, unite. 

A third point to be considered in the provisions of the Mor- 
rill bill is the magnitude of the domain set apart for these new 
institutions. The enactment furnishes them with a truly mag- 
nificent endowment, especially in the more populous States, 
and will enable them in their youth to outstrip in dignity and 
influence many of the older half-endowed colleges which are 
struggling for existence. The following table exhibits at a 
glance the number of " portions " each State is entitled to re- 



17 



ceive, and also the total number of acres. The reader will 
remember that thirty thousand acres is allotted for every Sena- 
tor and Representative in Congress. It is not absolutely cer- 
tain that all the States will accept the grant, but there is hardly 
a doubt that such will be the case. Delays in " reconstruc- 
tion " afford the only occasion for doubt. 







TABLE. 






c , , „ Senators and Repre- 


Acres 


a. , Senators and Repre- 


Acres 


States - sentatives 


in Congress 


in Scrip. 


states. gentatives 


in Congress. 


in Scrip. 


Alabama, 


8 


240,000 


Missouri, 


11 


330,000 


Arkansas, 


5 


150,000 


Nebraska, 


3 


90,000 


California, 


5 


150,000 


Nevada, 


3 


90,000 


Connecticut, 


6 


180,000 


New Hampshire, 


5 


150,000 


Delaware, 


3 


90,000 


New Jersey, 


7 


210,000 


Florida, 


3 


90,000 


New York, 


33 


990,000 


Georgia, 


9 


270,000 


North Carolina, 


9 


270,000 


Illinois, 


16 


480,000 


Ohio, 


21 


630,000 


Indiana, 


13 


390,000 


Oregon, 


3 


90,000 


Iowa, 


8 


240,000 


Pennsylvania, 


26 


780,000 


Kansas, 


3 


90,000 


Rhode Island, 


4 


120,000 


Kentucky, 


11 


330,000 


South Carolina, 


6 


180,000 


Louisiana, 


7 


210,000 


Tennessee, 


10 


300,000 


Maine, 


7 


210,000 


Texas, 


6 


180,000 


Maryland, 


7 


210,000 


Vermont, 


5 


150,000 


Massachusetts, 


12 


360,000 


Virginia, 


10 


300,000 


Michigan, 


8 


240,000 


West Virginia, 


5 


150,000 


Minnesota, 


4 


120,000 


Wisconsin, 


8 


240,000 


Mississippi, 


7 


210,000 












317 



9,510,000 



From the foregoing table it appears that the total number of 
Senators and Representatives in Congress is three hundred and 
seventeen, so that this number represents the possible allot- 
ments of land-scrip without reference to claims from Territories 
like Colorado and others which are soon to become States. 
Thus a total of nine million five hundred and ten thousand 
acres of land is set apart for the promotion of scientific educa- 
tion. It appears safe to estimate that this will yield, on the 
average, one dollar per acre, although much has been already 
sold at a lower price, and the market value of the scrip is very 
much below a dollar. 

Some of the States have taken measures, directly or indi- 
rectly, to dispose of their scrip, or to locate lands within their 



18 

own limits, in such a way as to secure a very much larger 
amount than a dollar per acre. In New York, for example, 
Mr. Cornell of Ithaca has taken the scrip at its market value, 
and is now devoting his rare financial ability to the disposal of 
it, in such quantities and on such terms as will enormously in- 
crease the proceeds, which he bestows on the institution, al- 
ready endowed by a gift from his private purse of half a mil- 
lion dollars. 

If our estimate is not too large, (and we feel confident that 
unless there is bad management it will be too small,) Congress 
has provided funds which will amount to ten millions of dollars 
for the endowment of the thirty-seven new colleges. The 
bounty of the several States and of private individuals is likely 
to make large additions to this amount. To begin with, the 
buildings must be provided from other sources than the na- 
tional gift, and local generosity is not likely to stop with pro- 
viding the house for so welcome a resident. 

The smallest States receive for their share of the public do- 
main ninety thousand acres. Twenty-one States receive over 
two hundred thousand acres each, and three receive over five 
hundred thousand acres. The Empire State gains the lion's 
share, nearly a million acres, — nearly three times as much as 
Massachusetts, and more than five times as much as Connecti- 
cut. If the land were in one parcel, it would make a territory 
of fourteen thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine miles, equal 
to the States of Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut 
combined, and larger than either of the three kingdoms, Hol- 
land, Belgium, and Hanover. 

Moreover, the proceeds of this gift are to be invested in per- 
manent funds guaranteed by the several States. One tenth 
may be taken for sites or for farms, but no more, — not a dol- 
lar for bricks and mortar. Hence the entire capital, or at 
least nine tenths of the capital, will remain forever secured for 
the national schools or colleges of science. 

A fourth point, which is worthy of special remark, among 
the requirements of the act, is the obligation of every institu- 
tion to prepare an Annual Report, and to send copies of the 
same to all kindred institutions in the land and to the Secre- 
tary of the Interior. This secures publicity, — the safeguard 



19 . 

of all endowed institutions. The whole country will know 
what is done in every State to give efficiency to the Congres- 
sional grant, and the experience of every locality will be at the 
service of every other. This alone is a great protection against 
blunders and errors, as well as against improper appropriations 
or squanderings of the income. 

Other points involved in the bill are worthy of consideration, 
but we have now considered its most significant features. A 
more liberal or a wiser educational endowment it would be 
hard to find proceeding from any government on the face of 
the globe. 

The influence of Congress terminates, as we have already 
said, in these general regulations, all details of organization 
and management being left to the several States. By means 
of the laws collected in the Circular of the Department of Edu- 
cation, it is possible to trace out the second phase in this re- 
markable history, and to see in what different ways, from Maine 
to California, the same idea has been worked out. We should 
exhaust the space at our command if we undertook to give a 
complete narrative of the legislative enactments and discussions 
in the twenty-seven loyal States. We therefore refer the read- 
er to the pamphlet just mentioned for accurate copies of what 
may be termed " the charters " of the institutions yet estab- 
lished, while we restrict ourselves to some points of comparison 
which are interesting and instructive. 

The earliest question which has arisen in nearly or quite 
every State has been the expediency of establishing one or 
more than one national college with the proceeds of the grant. 
It was natural that, in States where several classical colleges 
were already in existence, all inadequately equipped, some hes- 
itation should be felt about beginning a new institution, and 
that each existing college should desire to receive a portion 
of the endowment for industrial or scientific instruction. In 
New York such claims were earnestly urged upon the attention 
of the Legislature, and were skilfully answered by Mr. White 
(now Chancellor of Cornell University), in a speech in the 
Senate of that State, in March, 1865. We have thrown away, 
he said, in the collegiate system of New York, " the benefits 
arising from concentration of higher educational effort, and 



. 20 

have accepted the evils arising from scattering and division, 
until, instead of one or two strong institutions, we have a score 
of small colleges, each feeble, each poor, each incompletely 
equipped, each obliged to resort to continual beggary, each 
forced to abate something from thorough discipline." 

Similar arguments against a division of the grant may be 
found in Professor Whitney's California Report, and in the 
Reports of Professor J. B. Turner of Illinois (who is known in 
that State as the pioneer advocate of industrial education), 
and also expressed in terms of great eloquence and force in a 
message of Governor Andrew to the Legislature of Massa- 
chusetts. These views have generally prevailed. In every 
State but one, the grant has been concentrated on a single in- 
stitution. In Massachusetts alone, to the surprise of the rest 
of the country, a division was thought wise, and two institu- 
tions, one of agriculture, and the other- of the mechanic arts, 
are already in successful operation. This, however, must be 
admitted, that the evils of division will be less serious in Mas- 
sachusetts than in almost any other locality. 

A second question, closely connected with the first, has been 
the wisdom of combining the national school with some already 
existing institution. In this respect, also, the friends of con- 
centration have generally triumphed, — not always by bestow- 
ing the grant upon a corporation already existing, but com- 
monly by creating a distinct corporation, and then locating the 
new institution adjacent to, or in connection with, some older 
college. 

In New England, for example, all the States but Maine have 
placed the industrial colleges where the advantages of libra- 
ries and museums already collected may be freely made use of. 
"In New Hampshire, though a separate corporation is organized, 
the "Agricultural and Mechanical College " is to be in fact a 
department of Dartmouth College. Vermont brings her scrip 
to the University at Burlington. Massachusetts gives one third 
of her grant to the Institute of Technology in Boston, and two 
thirds to an agricultural school established near Amherst Col- 
lege. Rhode Island bestows her scrip on Brown University. 
Connecticut finds in that department of Yale College known as 
the Sheffield Scientific School just such an institution as was 



21 

described in the act of Congress, and invigorates it by the gift 
of the national bounty. New Jersey follows the example of 
Connecticut, and bestows on the Scientific School of Rutgers 
College her share of land. 

In Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Michigan, where agricul- 
tural colleges were already in successful operation, they have 
secured additional strength by the new endowment. In some 
of the Western States, the State Universities have been the 
recipients of the grant ; for example, in Wisconsin and Ken- 
tucky. In other States, as West Virginia, Indiana, Iowa, Min- 
nesota, Illinois, and California, it appears that new agricultural 
and mechanical colleges are to be organized, and not necessa- 
rily in connection with older institutions. 

One State alone, the Empire State, has made the national 
grant the basis of a new University, distinct from all existing 
institutions in the State, and likely at an early day to eclipse 
them all in wealth, in collections, in instructors, and in stu- 
dents. A citizen of Ithaca, Hon. Ezra Cornell, offered to the 
State two hundred acres of suitable land, and half a million of 
dollars in money, provided that the Legislature would con- 
centrate the national gift and his gift in a new University 
at Ithaca. The offer was accepted, and a scheme for the or- 
ganization of the " Cornell University " is projected in a 
pamphlet of the Chancellor, which we give in our caption. 

A third question has often arisen in respect to the desirabil- 
ity of procuring farms for the several colleges. In most of the 
States it has been thought expedient to do so, and permission 
to make the purchase has been granted by the Legislature. 
But among many of the wisest friends of agricultural improve- 
ment grave doubts are entertained whether a college farm can 
be wisely and economically administered. If it does not pay 
its expenses, farmers will be likely to scoff at " book laming " 
as very good for lawyers, but very poor for those who till the 
soil, and Legislatures will censure the management of a 
" model " farm which does not pay its own way. On the oth- 
er hand, if experiments are to be made, the idea that they will 
pay expenses is as absurd as to expect that expenses will be 
paid by the experiments of a chemical lecture-room. Our Leg- 
islatures are so largely made up of gentlemen from the rural 



22 

districts, that we apprehend more disappointment and trouble 
in this particular than in any other. There will be great dan- 
ger of complaints, whatever course may be adopted in the man- 
agement of school farms. 

"We refrain from further inquiry into the action of the Legis- 
latures in order to devote our remaining space to some of the 
grave questions which arise in the actual organization of the 
schools. In most cases the charters point out only in the most 
general terms the requisite characteristics, leaving all the de- 
tails to the trustees and faculties. No other course would have 
been justifiable. But it is precisely here that some of the 
greatest difficulties and the most serious differences of opinion 
begin to appear. 

Two critical epochs have been passed, — the Congressional 
and the Legislative. Now comes the third, the period of devel- 
opment, more critical and embarrassing perhaps than either of 
the others. Funds and charters have been provided, but they 
will not make a college. Regulations, courses of study, teach- 
ers, buildings, collections of books and apparatus, — all that 
pertains to the actual instruction of young men is still to be 
provided. We hazard little in saying that at the present mo- 
ment more men of intellectual vigor are at work upon the prob- 
lem of what these schools should be, than at any previous time 
in the history of the movement. In the hope that we may pos- 
sibly be of service to some of them, we shall offer a few sugges- 
tions based on a comparison of all the reports and pamphlets 
which have come before us, and on the experience derived in 
organizing one such institution. 

We regard it as highly important that the scientific schools 
of Europe should be understood in this country. The number, 
^variety, peculiarities, and excellence of such institutions, on 
/ the Continent especially, are imperfectly understood by the 
I people at large. Their influence, in the first place, on the ad- 
vancement of science and its application to human industry, 
on invention and discovery, deserves to be unfolded ; and in 
the second place, their influence on the training of manufactur- 
ers, agriculturists, miners, engineers, architects, for the various 
positions of the industrial world. Such schools abroad are lib- 
erally endowed, and are adapted to the wants of different 



V 



23 

classes of students, — to those who are competent to pursue 
the highest scientific investigations, and to those who seek only 
a technical preparation for active life. We need very much at 
the present moment an examination of the influence of foreign 
scientific institutions in promoting the efficiency of industrial 
undertakings. 

In England such an inquiry has been recently advocated, 
because it is thought that the International Exhibition in 
Paris of 1867, like that in London of 1851, reveals the fact 
that England is making less progress in manufacturing and 
mechanical industry than other European countries. Dr. 
Lyon Playfair, whose excellent pamphlet on " Industrial Edu- 
cation on the Continent," was of great use a few years ago, 
both here and in his own country, has recently called the at- 
tention of Lord Taunton, chairman of the Schools Inquiry 
Commission, to this subject.* He undertook to inquire into 
the causes of English inferiority, and found that among intelli- 
gent men " the one cause upon which there was most unanirn^ 
ity of conviction was, that France, Russia, Austria, Belgium,! 
and Switzerland possess good systems of industrial education! , 
for the masters and managers of factories and workshops, andy 
that England possesses none." Professor Tyndall confirm^ 
this opinion, and says that " he has long entertained the opin-^ 
ion, in virtue of the better education provided by the Conti- 
nental nations, that England must one day, and that no dis- \ 
tant one, find herself outstripped by those nations both in the/ 
I arts of peace and war." Americans are apt to point to our 
Veapers, sewing-machines, pianos, telegraphs, and other inge- 
nious contrivances, in evidence of the rapid and successful 
development of national industry ; but this proves nothing in 
respect to industrial education. If to the ingenuity of the 
New World, the thoroughness, the patience, and the science 
of the Old could be added, far greater results might be ex- 
pected than those we now attain. 

When Dumas, the celebrated chemist, says Dr. Playfair, saw 
anything excellent in the French Exhibition, his invariable 
question was, " Was the manager of this establishment a pupil I 
of the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures ? " and in the 

* See the Chemical News, August 16, 1867, p. 89. 



24 

great majority of cases he received an affirmative reply. It 
would be well if the characteristics of that school, of the Con- 
servatoire des Arts et Metiers, of the School of Mines at Frei- 
berg, of the Bauakademie at Berlin, the Polytechnic School at 
Dresden, and other first-class establishments, -were well under- 
stood by those who are called upon to manage our incipient 
institutions. 

At the same time, we do not believe in copying any foreign 
institution. The classical colleges of this country are the 
growth of this country. The technical colleges should be 
equally our own, adapted to our other institutions, our common 
schools, our modes of life, our national necessities. If they are 
not American colleges, they will not suit American students. 
Let us carefully study all that is good in the institutions of 
other countries, and adapt it so far as possible to our circum- 
stances and needs. 

Again, it seems to us very desirable that each of these State 
institutions should have its special and peculiar characteristics, 
its individuality. It will be a great pity if any one of them 
becomes so conspicuous for its excellence that all the others 
copy it. The wants of the country are various ; each school 
should aim to supply some particular necessity, and should 
strive to be strong in certain directions. The older States will 
probably make their requirements for admission higher, and 
their courses of study more rigid and difficult, than the newer 
States. So, too, it will be well if the particular characteristics 
of each State receive attention in the organization of its school. 
In the agricultural States of the West, agriculture will natu- 
rally be prominent. In California, Nevada, Pennsylvania, the 
mining interests should receive particular attention. At the 
East the methods of education should be specially adapted to 
the instruction of engineers, mechanics, and chemists, and the 
directors and superintendents of great manufacturing estab- 
lishments. 

Where there is a university organization, the constant effort 
should be made to educate men of science, able to investigate, 
competent to teach, proficient in specialties. At all events, 
each institution should have a definite and declared object 
which everybody understands ; there should be great caution 



25 

about undertaking too much, and so doing nothing well ; and 
it ought to be apparent, as the years go on, that among these 
national institutions provision is made for all the wants of the 
nation in technical education. 

We observe a tendency, already manifest in a considerable 
degree, to mark out on paper long lists of " chairs " which it 
is proposed to fill. But in our opinion it is not half so impor- 
tant what the professorships as who the professors are. It is 
the men who make the college, not the titles of the catalogue. 
In a new and unorganized institution, the same person, though 
it may not be pleasant to him, may be obliged to teach several 
things. It is the ill luck of a new institution. But a corps of 
instructors, young, manly, thorough, truth-loving, able to teach, 
speak, and economize, will do more to give character and suc- 
cess to a foundation which is still dependent upon the favor of 
the people, than a corps of older men, who may have been titu- 
lar professors for a quarter of a century, but who are not pos- 
sessed with the spirit of modern inquiry. If those who are 
called upon to man the national colleges can secure a harmo- 
nious body of instructors, each able to do something beyond his 
specialty, and eager for the general good, success may be ex- 
pected, but hardly otherwise. Our greatest fear at the outset 
of these institutions is, that a sufficient number of really com- 
petent teachers cannot be found in the country ready to man- 
age them. It will be well for the older States to make a point 
of training professors for the various openings which are sure 
to be waiting for qualified men to fill them. 

In regard to buildings, we seem fated in this country to sink 
large sums of money in unsatisfactory and often ill-designed 
buildings. The Smithsonian Institution, the Yale School of the^ 
Fine Arts, the Troy University, Yassar College, are among the 
instances which occur to us, where sums quite disproportionate 
to the remaining endowments have been invested in stone and, 
brick. Congress has forbidden the use of the public money in 
the erection of college halls, but there is danger that other funds 
will be absorbed in injudicious structures. The admirable 
pamphlet of Mr. Olmsted, entitled " A few Things to be thought 
of before proceeding to construct Buildings for the National 
Agricultural Colleges," contains so many excellent hints on the 
3 



26 

matter of college architecture, that we heartily commend it to 
all who think of building. His suggestions in respect to the 
construction of several small buildings on the college farm, 
rather than extensive brick barracks, and in respect to mak- 
ing college residences attractive homes, are worthy of general 
adoption. We hope to see them everywhere followed. 

The predominance which will of necessity be given to scien- 
tific studies renders it important to be watchful that the study 
of language is not undervalued in the national institutions. 
No better discipline for the mind can be found than that which 
comes from a careful philosophical study of the modes of ex- 
pressing thought. The study of Latin, at least to the extent 
of reading Cicero and Virgil with ready accuracy, is, on many 
accounts, of great importance. Teachers and text-books are 
everywhere at command, and none who aim to be educated 
men should stop short of this amount of linguistic culture, 
valuable in itself and valuable also as a help to other studies. 
Greek is less important. The critical study of English is in- 
dispensable, and a scientific man is not equipped for his work 
in life without some knowledge of French and German, in 
which so many of the results of modern investigation are re- 
corded. 

The military instruction required by Congress is likely to 
give some trouble. In some States, West Virginia, for in- 
stance, the agricultural school is to be made a military acad- 
emy with a thoroughly organized corps of cadets. Probably 
the permission granted by Congress, on the 28th of July, 1866, 
to the President of the United States, to detail an officer of the 
army to act as president, superintendent, or professor in any 
college having one hundred and fifty students, may lead to 
some new developments respecting the feasibility of uniting 
military with scientific studies. An officer of the army, Major 
Whittlesey, has been recently conferring with officers of col- 
leges in respect to the possibility of providing in them military 
instruction, and the report of his inquiries is now awaited with 
interest. 

In one institution the opinion is maintained that instruction 
in the principles of strategy, the laws of military movements, 
the organization of armies, the power of ordnance, and other 



27 

such topics, is likely to be of far more service to the young 
men, if their services should be called for in time of war, than 
ordinary drill in a military company. " The 'School of the 
Soldier " can be mastered in the village militia company, under 
the orders of an orderly sergeant; but the principles of mil- 
itary science must be taught in a scientific method and by a 
scientific man. An annual course of lectures, illustrated by 
diagrams, may therefore give more correct ideas of military 
tactics, in the higher sense of the word, than any daily system 
of discipline and drill. 

The educational value of museums ought to be constantly in 
mind in organizing these new institutions. Their influence 
upon the public is almost as important as upon the students. 
Each scientific school should not only be a place for the train- 
ing of boys, but it should be a centre of light and instruction for 
the entire State, in which shall be collected examples of all in- 
teresting natural objects which can be brought together, and to 
which all the citizens of the State shall resort for information. 

This leads us to a final remark. We trust that the mana- 
gers of the National Schools of Science will feel that a great 
responsibility rests upon them to maintain these institutions on 
as elevated a plane as the means at their command will per- 
mit. We do not think it likely or desirable that they should 
train young men to go back and labor with the hoe or the an- 
vil. They are rather to train men by scientific courses of 
study for the higher avocations of life, and especially to take 
charge of mines, manufactories, the construction of public 
works, the conduct of topographical and other scientific sur- 
veys, — to be leading scientific men. By and by we shall 
have industrial schools of a lower grade, in which more ele- 
mentary and practical instruction will be given, suited to those 
who expect to labor with their hands behind the plough and 
at the file. As yet, however, we have not teachers enough to 
maintain many of such local schools. When our central 
schools are well in progress, the other schools will follow. Till 
then, mechanics and farmers must seek the knowledge they 
desire by the occasional courses of lectures in which the results 
of modern science may be clearly brought before them. Expe- 
rience seems to show that the sons of farmers in this country, 



28 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



029 996 218 



if they spend three or four years in acquiring an education, 
will not return to the homestead except as managers of the 
paternal estate. They will almost always choose to enter other 
callings, than to be educated farmers handling the scythe and 
tending the cattle. If the friends of agricultural colleges ex- 
pect to train up such laborers, we fear they will be disappointed. 
If, however, schools of science can be maintained where true 
science in all its departments is cherished, then the agricul- 
ture, the mines, and the manufactures of the country will alike 
be benefited. 

The establishment of these National Schools of Science 
leaves the field clear for the older colleges to maintain more 
vigorously than ever the established discipline of Latin and 
Greek. In this we heartily rejoice. The more the course of 
study in the academic departments of Harvard and Yale is 
improved, and the more all the older classical colleges do for 
the advancement of classical culture, the better will it be for 
the interests of education. Never, probably, in the history of 
the country, was it more desirable that the study of History, 
Law, Political Economy, Philosophy, Literature, and all the 
humanities should be kept up, and that yomig men should 
learn to value the lessons of the past, and to take counsel from 
the thoughts of the wise men of every age and country. Here- 
tofore the complaint has been, that the classics were the only 
means of liberal education. Henceforward science will offer 
its aids to intellectual culture in organized schools. Both 
classes of institutions will flourish side by side, and each will 
be strong in the other's strength. The Creator and his laws, 
man and his development, or, in other words, science and 
history, alike afford abundant discipline for the mind, and 
appropriate preparation for the active work of life. 



